


My House of Stone, Your Ivy Grows

by jessequicksters



Series: Devil's Coven [5]
Category: Constantine (TV), Constantine: The Hellblazer (Comics), DCU (Comics), Justice League Dark (Comics), Lucifer (TV), Zatanna (Comics)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Baggage, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Porn with (too much) plot, Threesome - F/M/M, sex to cure all ails, suffering in deliriously long summers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:34:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28711320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessequicksters/pseuds/jessequicksters
Summary: A year after Chaos and Order magic were released into the multiverse, John, Zatanna and Lucifer are still trying to alleviate the consequences of the event. Burdens keep piling on, one after the other.Helios, the sun god, is ravaging an entire Earth. Zatanna is taking on more pain than she can bear; Lucifer is concerned about their strained relationship; and John—John wonders when enough is enough.
Relationships: John Constantine/Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), John Constantine/Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV)/Zatanna Zatara, John Constantine/Zatanna Zatara, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV)/Zatanna Zatara
Series: Devil's Coven [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989967
Kudos: 9





	My House of Stone, Your Ivy Grows

**Author's Note:**

> a little bit about the premise if you're new to the series! this is somewhat of a direct follow-up to Love Me at the Ungodly Hour, where our trio released all sorts of magical forces out into the world to stop the end of the world, etc etc. they've kind of committed themselves to this endless multiverse-travelling to try and save people along the way.
> 
> that's really it though! I mostly wanted to practice writing some porn for these three lmao so perhaps this is the most elaborate pwp ever

John knew leaving her behind was a bad idea. The thought of her in danger was growing like a seed of ivy in his stomach, like slow acting poison someone would brush off before the symptoms started to show.

“I thought you had a much stronger constitution, John,” Lucifer said, pushing another drink towards him like plain medication. “Besides, she’s hardly one to worry about. I think she’d take offense to it, actually.”

John squirmed at the sight of the glass of tequila. The nights had been hot and dry enough without it. (Bar the times spent in bed with Lucifer, of course.) It had been an excruciatingly long year, travelling from one Earth to another, fighting all sorts of demons and monsters, fixing up the tears in the magic and his least favourite responsibility of all: rehabilitating the poor people who had been ravaged, one way or another, by the magic he had let out into the worlds.

And yes, it was for a good cause.

And no, it didn’t make him feel any less shite.

“You really must be unwell,” Lucifer said, leaning forward to look into his eyes. For a second John thought he might be displaying genuine concern, until—“that tequila shot came from the last of ten very expensive bottles in that bartender’s inheritance. I drank the rest, of course, but I thought to save the last one for you.”

John buried his face in his hands, but not fast enough for Lucifer not to pick up on his defeated smile.

“You know you want to, come on, John. She would want you to loosen up. You’re always so tense when you’re worried about her and I think you start to deny yourself around _me_ when you think you’re not doing enough about—well, whatever it is you think you should be doing. Now, I just don’t think that makes for a healthy relationship, for any of us,” Lucifer folded his hands primly on the table, smiling still.

John rested his chin on his hand. The rest of the bar may have been a goddamn blur but Lucifer’s eyes still kept him locked in place. They were always so bright, even on the darkest of nights, even in the lowest pits of Hell. Lucifer was always so _bright_ about everything.

“Fine,” he finally conceded, bringing the shot to his lips, wincing at the burn. Right. That one was definitely going to send him over his threshold tonight. “Your responsibility to carry me home, now.”

Lucifer walked his fingers over John’s sleeves, still damp from getting caught in the rain outside earlier. “If I must.”

John gave him a gentle nudge under the table with his knee, relishing the look of surprise on Lucifer’s face.

“Cheeky.”

“You said I was denying myself, whatever the fuck that means.”

Lucifer quickly defended his earlier accusation, “I said you tend to shut down around me when you’re worried about her.”

“That’s not what you said,” John shook his head.

“Well, that’s what I meant.”

“Filthy liar,” John angled his knee further in between Lucifer’s legs. Lucifer let out a half-annoyed moan, which was so amusing to John at the time he snorted into a full-on laugh.

They left the bar soon after that, and John’s prediction of Lucifer having to drag him back to their motel ended up coming true, for better or for worse. It wasn’t until they were underneath the full glare of the bathroom lights, did John realize how absolutely hammered Lucifer was.

The bags under his eyes were starting to show a sickly colour. He had a sharpness to his gaze that wasn’t going away, that John couldn’t ignore, even when he closed his eyes.

Maybe this job was taking a toll on him, too.

“Do you miss it?” John asked, inelegantly pulling Lucifer’s white shirt back from his shoulders, as he was pressed naked against the sink, the celestial’s hands tightly gripping his already-bruised hips.

“Miss what,” Lucifer said, lips already meeting the back of John’s ear.

“LA,” he finally managed to yank off the shirt. Trousers next. “The life you had. Just being the Devil. Not some bloody—hmm.”

The poison was setting in. The ivy had taken hold to John’s insides. The worry was back, along with the paranoia, the pain and the frustration.

“I hate this. I hate this endless—we’re not bloody pilgrims, or soldiers,” John hissed.

He felt a sharp inhale, as Lucifer pulled away and let go of him. It wasn’t often that Lucifer terrified him these days, not since they—they were closer now. Things were different. But sometimes, Lucifer looked him in the eyes and all he could see was a window straight to Hell.

“No, you don’t hate this.”

“I do, I just said—”

“You’ve been doing this your whole life. Hopelessly trying to save the damned. Long before you met me. Long before we released Chaos and Order into the world. What you hate is confronting the consequences of what we did every day. Every time we step into another world to stop some terror from releasing itself. Sometimes, the deed’s been done and people have been hurt. Sometimes, worse. That's what you hate.”

Sermon by the Devil. Get him out of this temple.

“People didn’t ask for what we gave them, Luci. I know—I’ve pulled my fair share of souls to Hell, but this is different. The amount of people we’ve seen, losing themselves to magic, good or bad, it doesn’t matter. We’ve changed them. We’ve taken away lives. And they have no idea why this is happening or what it’s going to do to them. If it’s going to happen to someone they love. We can’t possibly keep up with this.”

Lucifer tilted his head to the side. “You’re right. This _is_ different. The three of us made this choice together. You, me and Zatanna. You think you’ve seen it all, John? You think you’re the only person whose actions have rippled across the universe with unintended consequences?”

“You’re a bloody celestial,” John pinched the bridge of his nose. A splitting headache was coming along. Scratch that. It was already there.

“Wonderful display of empathy there, John,” Lucifer commented.

“I meant—”

“You know what, maybe you were right. Maybe we should go back to Zatanna, and then you can go and tell her yourself that you’d like to abandon this coven.”

Lucifer started uttering a spell, then, and John was too out of it to stop it. They were immediately teleported elsewhere—John often forgot how quickly Lucifer could do these things—and found themselves in a village entirely up in flames.

John felt a burn on his skin and realized he was still entirely naked. He quickly said a spell to get both him and Lucifer in clothes again.

“Where are we,” John asked, looking around the place in ruins.

“I was trying to take us to…” Lucifer said, before dropping the sentence in realization. In front of them was a little building where they had last seen Zatanna, now engulfed in wild flames.

*

They had travelled to this Earth with news of magical activity tipping heavily into the direction of Order. Order magic had rooted itself into the skies, awakening the ancient sun god Helios, who had blessed people with newfound power to form a mortal army.

They were meant to find this army and stop it, but Zatanna had gotten distracted by a woman and her child who lost their father to Helios’ spell. They were all under the same roof when Helios cast the spell unto them, but they seemed immune to it. She refused to leave them, believing it was her responsibility to explain every possibility of what happened to their father; what might be happening to them, if not at that moment, then possibly soon.

John and Lucifer left to find the army, but even after two weeks, all they kept finding was dwindling towns and villages with missing people that had befallen the same fate: they had all been struck by a bright light at one point or another.

Now, someone had clearly pissed off the sun god here.

“Can you handle the fires?” John asked, as Lucifer nodded. “I’ll get Zee.”

Lucifer squeezed his hand before letting him go, “Be bloody careful.”

John ran into the building where the mother and her girl lived. He had one of Amenadiel’s feathers in his coat pocket and cast a spell to activate it. It had the ability to stop time in brief intervals—enough to allow him to dodge most of the flames and find Zatanna in a protected room, holding their hands on the floor as if in prayer.

“This isn’t your fault,” Zatanna was telling them. “Helios, he—he doesn’t own you, or your powers. You do not have to conform. You do not have to fall in line, you hear me? His retaliation is not your fault. You always have a choice. I am so sorry about what happened to your dad, but this isn’t him who did this. The army that Helios sent, those men aren’t themselves anymore.”

John felt the poison taking over, as his hold on the spell faltered and the feather burned up into a flame, as did his hand. He started choking on his own guilt, mixed into a deadly cocktail with the fumes building around him.

Zatanna realized his presence and pulled him into her protection sphere, “John!”

“I’m all right, love,” he waved her off, “just making sure you were.”

She nodded, brows knitting with concern at his burnt hand. “I am. I was just talking to them about their magic. Helios’ power isn’t infallible. There are people out there who can resist his influence.”

“I cannot use this magic,” the mother said, sobbing into Zatanna’s chest as she caught her in her arms. “I cannot, not with the knowledge of what this did to Peter. I will not have it happen to me, or to Ella. Can you take it away from me, please?”

“I—” Zatanna started, as the girl looked at her expectantly. “I’m afraid I can’t. Power of the gods. Overrides even my magic.” She looked at John for confirmation, who nodded. Not even the three of them combined would be able to do this, especially not with repercussions, and they’ve had enough of that.

The woman then collected herself in a moment of somber acceptance. “Fine. If not, at least give me the strength to carry on. I can’t be expected to fight the man I would break down in tears over the minute I see him, whether his soul is still in there or not. Do me this one thing and then go, please. We’ve had enough revelations for the time being. I can figure out the rest on my own.”

John saw the gears in Zatanna’s brain turning, until she nodded. “I can take away the pain. From your grief, I mean. But pain is connected to so many other things: your anger, your sense of justice, your love. So, you might lose all of these feelings for him in the process.”

“As long as I don’t lose my hatred for Helios, I can handle it. Do it, then.”

“Wait, one more thing. I won’t do it to Ella,” Zatanna said, looking down at the little girl. “I know it hurts, but she’s too young. Her emotions are still developing and it’ll be even more difficult to separate these feelings.”

“You witch,” she said, grabbing Zatanna by the collar, “do it to both of us or leave us the fuck alone. You brought this mess into our world, so you’re going to do as I say or I’ll send you back to where you came from.”

“Hey! Easy now—” John said, pushing her off, but Zatanna interrupted.

“It’s all right. Fine. I’ll do it,” she said, taking both their hands. John watched her work as she cast her spell, the energy from their combined pain surging into her. She took a deep breath as she took it all in, even with tears streaming down her face, flushed red.

“Zee,” John said, holding her steady as she collapsed backwards slightly. It was done.

“It’s okay, John, I promise,” she squeaked, trying to wipe away her tears. He looked up and noticed that the fires were dwindling around them. Lucifer had taken care of it. “We should go.”

*

That Earth was probably one of their biggest failures. Helios’ world of Order. John didn’t know if they would ever go back; if so, when, or even how they would return to face that world they did absolutely nothing for.

Well, almost nothing. Zatanna had been obsessively keeping track of that mother and her daughter via her father’s old crystal ball. They had amassed an army of their own, a resistance of sorts, in the coming months, which had converted more people away from Helios, even those who had fallen to his spell.

No sign of the lost husband and father yet, although it was probably the case that they didn’t care for him anymore. Zatanna was right. Take away someone’s pain, someone’s grief, for the person they loved and lost—and all you were left with was a void where the loss once lived.

*

Zatanna was curled up in bed one night after spending nearly four hours in the bath. It was another one of those nights.

Lucifer and John were on the other side of the door, deciding whether to go in and wake her, or to sleep elsewhere for the night.

“She did it again?” Lucifer asked, “Blimey, and I thought you were the only one prone to self-flagellation.”

“I know, I kept on telling her not to, but that’s her new M.O it seems,” John said, deliberately ignoring Lucifer. “Taking away people’s pain, their grief. Maybe she feels its atonement.”

“She’s a divine person enough without having to act as a bloody cross for others,” Lucifer sighed.

“I know,” John nodded. “Look, I say we leave her alone for now and let her be. She’ll pull herself out of it eventually.”

“Right,” Lucifer said, with a feigned look of understanding. “You do that, and I’ll speak to her.”

“Luci, don’t—”

The door opened and Zatanna stood there with a forward look.

“You know you both talk really loudly.”

“I was trying to keep it down, love,” John sighed, stroking her hair as she showed a small smile. She held both their faces for a soft kiss, one after another, as quiet as their nights had been lately.

“Don’t be strangers.”

They ended up lying in a heap of each other in bed. Lucifer and Zatanna were both settled on John’s torso, playing a game of cat’s cradle as John lay back with his eyes wide open.

“Oh, look, you’ve caught yourself in a knot again,” Zatanna pointed out.

“Patience, Miss Zatara, I can get myself out of this one,” Lucifer replied, as John felt his elbow pressing into his rib.

“Ow!”

“Sorry,” Lucifer grinned, as Zatanna reached out to pet his head. “Just a minute, we’re about to make a _carpet_ pattern, as it's curiously named.”

“You need to twist your wrist around it, Lucifer,” she said. “Here—like that.”

He sighed an ‘ah’ in understanding. “This is a silly game.”

“We mortals like our silly games.”

“I’ve noticed,” he said, as they kissed, nuzzling their faces into each other.

“All right, show me this carpet you’ve made,” John said, sitting up slightly to get a better look at them.

They held their hands up, revealing the patterned carpet figure made of string. John laughed out loud. They had been at this for about twenty minutes, and he knew for a fact that Zee could whip up far more elaborate patterns in two.

Not wanting to spoil the fun, he clapped, “Well done, you two.”

“I gotta say, it’s been nice taking a break from, well—everything,” Zatanna admits, pulling the string off their fingers.

“How are you doing, darling?” Lucifer asked.

She nodded, eyes still cast downwards. “Okay.”

“How many times are you going to try to lie to me until you realize it won’t work,” Lucifer said.

“He catches me out on it, too,” John added, “don’t feel too bad about it.”

From the look on her face, John could tell that she had had enough of her own wallowing, too. He knew when she was reaching the end of her own limits, to her own self-imposed punishment.

“I’m tired,” she finally answered. “Exhausted, actually. I’ve been trying to push it away, to tell myself that this is my responsibility and I owe every part of myself to this mission, but it gets harder every time. I was trying to teach this little boy the most basic of protection charms, but I couldn’t even remember the words for it. I was thinking of—it’s like everyone who’s pain I’ve taken away, they keep pulling my mind away from the moment. And it’s always so loud inside, that I can barely pay attention to what’s going on outside.”

“I know a little bit about how torture chambers work, Zatanna,” Lucifer said, reaching for her hand, as John rested his on top of his, too.

“I’m not,” she laughed, helplessly, “torturing myself.”

The two of them stared her down until she cracked.

The thing about emotions was that they couldn’t be erased. They could be suppressed, but that would just result in them spilling out at the worst possible moment. They could only be worn, like wounds, until they faded with time.

A person could only take so many open wounds at once until they bled out, and he wasn’t about to let that happen to her.

“Give it to us, then,” John said. “There’s enough misery to go around in this room.”

Lucifer looked startled, as if he hadn’t expected John to say that.

“You don’t have to give away all of it, just enough that you’d be able to take care of yourself, love.”

Lucifer quickly interjected with a condition of his own. “I will say, this needs to stop once and for all. There are plenty of ways to help people which don’t involve crushing your soul in the process. And I know you know this, because this is everything you stand against. You only thought you could get away with it because you were doing it to yourself and you thought no one was paying attention.”

“You were,” Zatanna admitted, with steady relief. “You’re always paying attention to me.”

John and Lucifer kissed her, and then one unburdening spell led to a different type of unburdening, one that required looser tongues and minds.

*

He realized, somewhere along the way, that they were more sensible when they were all in bed together. Less of the grating tension from whenever it was just him and Lucifer, or the heaviness of their past when it was just him and Zee. John didn’t know what things were like between the two of them, admittedly. Maybe a lot easier. Maybe he was the lowest common denominator, here.

Everything was always good, of course. They all knew how to enjoy themselves, but there was just a little extra care when they were like this. Like Zatanna had said, they had always paid attention to one another.

“John,” Zatanna whined, pulling herself onto his lap, hands hooked around his neck.

“Beauty,” John said, looking up to her flushed face. He pulled a pillow in behind his back for a little bit of padding between him and the wooden headboard.

Lucifer shifted closer behind her, closing the gap between two of them. John felt his damp fingers sliding down from her stomach all the way down to his cock, twitching red.

“If you touch me again, Morningstar, she won’t have her ride,” John swatted his hand away, as much as it pained him to.

Lucifer laughed, sliding his hands back up Zatanna’s chest to cup her breasts. He fiddled with her nipples, poking his head over her shoulder to mock pout at John.

“Oh, so it’s my fault for properly sucking you off, Johnny, is that it? I thought we were over blaming the Devil for everything. Is it my fault, Miss—?” he turned to her, who reached for his cock behind her, slipping it inside of her, as he let out a surprised moan.

Before John could comment, she angled her hips over his erection and pushed down even harder, as John felt his soul leave his body through his cock.

Lucifer, never one to get bested in any way, spread his knees a little wider on the mattress, holding on tight to Zatanna’s waist as he rocked his hips forward. His hands strayed, then, moving towards John’s neck, his open lips, loud from the combined movement of the two of them. Lucifer pushed two fingers into his mouth, for the fun of it, as John sucked obediently.

The task was somehow the only thing keeping him together in the moment. Zatanna joined the fun, tongue darting into his mouth and around Luicfer’s fingers, trailing the Onyx ring he always wore.

She kept her hips moving, as did Lucifer, while John wasn’t in a position to do much except sit there and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Feeling Lucifer like this from inside her, hard, rough and wet at the same time, there was a reason they didn’t do it often.

He tangled his fingers into her hair, “Fuck, Zee, I’m gonna—”

Worth the early finish every time. Lucifer grabbed both his hands and started pushing even harder against him, eliciting a noise of helpless complaint from even Zatanna.

John came as he usually did, loudly and with no shame about it. The insides of his thighs were already dripping wet, with whose fluids, who knew. Zatanna settled back into him with a couple of tiny bounces, before carefully climbing off him.

“I’m free for another ride, darling,” Lucifer lifted a hand with an exhale. John could see the sweat pooling on his forehead.

“How generous of you,” she said. “Would you fuck me instead? I’m tired.”

John shuffled through the drawers for a towel as he listened to the two of them trying to renegotiate. Everything was always a game to them. It was charming. Much better being a spectator than to try to join in as a player, though, John had decided a long time ago.

“What, and deprive myself from watching these gorgeous things bounce? Never.”

“They still bounce in—other positions,” Zatanna argued.

“Not the same,” Lucifer sang.

“What would it take,” she lowered her voice, “to get you to fuck me, Lucifer Morningstar.”

“Certainly more than that.”

John was curious enough to turn around to find the two of them engaged in some elaborate headlock with the other. Lucifer was grinning as Zatanna repeatedly bit into his neck.

“My, my, you would make a terrible vampire,” Lucifer said, lightly tapping her ass as she moved forward and onto his lap. “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

She rolled her eyes and whispered lovingly, “Shut up.”

John grabbed the towel and brought it to the bed after the quick clean up. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for the two of them to switch positions, despite Lucifer’s insistence for Zatanna to ride him.

Lucifer managed to catch John’s gaze as Zatanna lay flat on her back for a quick break, pulling him in for a dirty kiss. “Enjoying yourself?”

“You know I’m easy.”

“You know what they say about things that seem easy, John? It actually takes a lot of work to get to that point.”

Zatanna made a noise in agreement.

“Just fuck her good, all right?” John said, brushing his fingers through the coarse hairs down Lucifer’s pelvis, considerably tensing in the moment. He wrapped his hands along his length for a playful tug, admiring every inch of it, strong and wanting.

“Your wish is the Devil’s command.”

“Glad to know my wishes were worth zilch,” Zatanna piped up.

“You see, darling, Johnny here has considerable persuasive skill when it comes to getting me to do things I don’t normally do,” he said, licking his lips at the sight of John’s mouth, held open by the pinch of his fingers.

“Is that so?” John asked.

“Joining a coven. Leaving the revelry of Los Angeles for a touch more—sacrifice and misery. Saving innocents instead of punishing the guilty. Occasionally, forgiving the guilty, even when said guilty fucked me over once upon a time,” Lucifer looked him up and down through those thick lashes of his.

“Sucking the guilty’s cock.”

Lucifer sighed. “Yes. Seems like I had a little further to fall after Hell.”

“You have plenty of opportunities to fall further, your Devilry,” Zatanna said, as they descended over her, slipping their fingers back into her, still wet from a rather elusive orgasm tonight.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Lucifer said, truthfully.

John felt silly for considering, even for a moment, abandoning this. Life was always going to be a garden of vicious creatures. Worlds were always flooded with poison, magic-imbued or not. The biggest demons were often ordinary people, doing unspeakable things.

Pain was a breeding ground for love. Swallowing it was never a replacement for fixing things. The wounded couldn’t tend to the wounded, but nights like this made for good remedies. And with enough nights like this, well. Maybe their garden could be good.

“John?” Zatanna said, brushing a thumb over his eyebrow. “You still with us?”

He nodded, snapping back into it. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you're interested for more with this three, I've updated the reading order in the series description + there will be a multichap coming up soon! thanks for stopping by, I rly love bringing this ship to life <3


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